Self-growth is easier when you have a personal resolve to achieve and maintain sobriety. Recovery is more than medical interventions, skill development, therapy, or joining the sober community. Your determination to follow through with the recovery process will affect every aspect of your life, including mental and physical health. You will get more out of therapy and have a lower risk of relapse if you commit yourself to sobriety. Newport Beach Recovery Center uses evidence-based therapeutic methods, including acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), motivational interviewing (MI), and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), to help clients make positive changes.
Why Are Motivations and Personal Resolve Essential to Recovery?
Personal resolve is a lifelong commitment to a specific idea, behavior, or belief. By choosing to remain sober, you give yourself a long-term goal that will guide your future decisions. Your resolve can help you create sustainable motivation and achievable recovery goals by doing the following:
- Providing you with the desire to maintain sobriety
- Reminding you of what you will achieve if you resist cravings and intrusive thoughts
- Giving you a roadmap forward during long-term recovery
- Empowering you to continue making healthier choices
Misusing certain substances can affect various areas of the brain and make it more challenging to examine past substance misuse objectively, which can lead to a lack of motivation. Difficulty focusing on your resolve during treatment is not a moral failing, and most people need additional support in early recovery to maintain their commitment to change. A large part of rehabilitation involves being held accountable and learning to take on self-accountability healthily.
What Are the Benefits of Personal Resolve?
Resolving to make better choices and improve your general well-being comes with many benefits, including:
- Increased conflict resolution and problem-solving skills
- Reduced ambivalence or hesitancy about treatment and recovery
- Healthier relationships
- More social engagement and better communication
If you feel confident in your ability to overcome challenges, the early stages of treatment will feel less overwhelming and stressful. A deep commitment to change can also empower you to make positive changes in other areas of your life. At Newport Beach Recovery Center, we believe that everyone has the potential to heal from SUD and related mental health disorders.
Personal resolve ensures that you actively engage in treatments, including various forms of therapy. According to The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, “Cognitive therapy is one of the main tools for changing people’s negative thinking and developing healthy coping skills.” Your commitment to learning these coping techniques will make recognizing and replacing maladaptive thought patterns and behaviors easier during recovery.
How Can You Identify Healthy Motivations?
Healthy motivations can help you maintain your resolve and work through underlying issues that contributed to the development of your SUD. Below are a few markers to look for if you want to determine whether your motivations are healthy or unhealthy:
- Healthy motivations result in positive changes to your thoughts, behaviors, or environments
- Unhealthy motivations can lead to maladaptive behaviors and thought patterns
- Healthy motivations empower you to take back control of your life
- Unhealthy motivations entrench you further in thoughts or behaviors that increase the risk of falling back into maladaptive routines.
- Healthy motivations enhance the effectiveness of treatment and therapy
- Unhealthy motivations can interfere with treatment and therapy
- Both types of motivation can feel impactful at the moment
Sometimes you need an outside observer to point out when you have unhealthy coping mechanisms. You can use individual or group therapy and your support system to hold yourself accountable and ensure that your choices will improve your life and help you follow through with your resolve to recover from SUD.
Why Is Personal Resolve Important?
Personal resolve ensures that you keep the goal of sobriety at the forefront of your mind during treatment. By maintaining that focus and drive, you can achieve amazing success within a short period. Taking that mindset with you into aftercare will encourage active participation in therapy and conscious self-improvement. In addition, most people notice an increase in self-awareness, self-esteem, and self-efficacy. According to Addictive Behaviors, individuals in treatment with “high confidence in their ability to resist drinking were more likely to maintain abstinence” for a significant period.
Your resolve can improve your treatment outcome and reduce the risk of relapse during continuing care. By choosing sobriety, you take back control of your life. The effectiveness of treatment relies on your ability and willingness to make positive changes to the way you think and act. A commitment to recovery ensures you get the most out of each treatment and therapy session during rehabilitation.
Your determination to make healthy changes will have a positive ripple effect on the lives of everyone around you. By taking responsibility for your well-being and recovery, you can increase the effectiveness of treatment and reduce the risk of relapse during continuing care. Your resolve to see things through and make essential changes to your lifestyle will propel you forward and keep you motivated during difficult moments in recovery. At Newport Beach Recovery Center, we believe everyone has the potential to recover from substance use disorder. We offer you the essential tools you need to heal and cope with the daily stressors that cause cravings and intrusive thoughts. You can significantly improve your outcome by committing yourself to a sober future and healthier choices. To learn more about our treatment facility and the services we offer, call our office today at (888) 850-0363.
